Tips for Thrifty Quilting from Darlene Zimmerman

Arrange a fabric swap with friends or guild members. Keep the rules simple: Bring fat quarters or larger pieces of quilt shop quality fabric. Swap for as many fat quarters as you have brought. This is a great way to collect enough fabrics for a particular color palate (blue and yellow for example) or theme (Christmas for example) for your next quilt.

A pieced binding can be added to a scrappy quilt by sewing longer strips together on the long edges, creating a strip set at least 12-18" deep. Cut bias binding from this strip set and piece together on the diagonal to create the length needed for binding.

Recycle clothing to use in quilting -- wool fabric for felted wool projects and save buttons for craft or quilting projects. Bits of trim, embellishments and fancy fabrics can be incorporated in crazy quilting. Worn cotton fabric can be cut up for cleaning rags.

Re-discover the joys of hand piecing, hand quilting and embroidery. Keep one of those projects handy to work on while watching television, traveling, or waiting for someone. It's amazing how much you can accomplish if you have a project ready to work on – and you aren't using any electricity to hand-sew!

While sorting through your stash to find just what you need for your current project, put aside those "mistakes"—fabrics you wonder WHY you ever purchased—for a quilter's garage sale, to donate for charity quilts, or to share with your friends.